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SMC teams aiming for higher finishes than polls suggest

Free Press Sports Staff
Published 10:45 p.m. ET Nov. 6, 2015

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St. Michael’s Megan Gaudreau (22) drives to the hoop during a college women’s basketball game last season. The Purple Knights hope to improve their standing in the Northeast-10 Conference.(Photo: Free Press file)Buy Photo

One thing is certain for the St. Michael’s College men’s and women’s basketball teams: They will look to prove their doubters wrong.

The Purple Knight men, with six seniors lost to graduation, including all five starters, were picked to finish eighth in the Northeast Division of the Northeast-10 Conference. While the SMC women, despite returning eight players, were tabbed seventh in the preseason coaches’ poll.

After today’s exhibition doubleheader at the University of Vermont, SMC begins regular-season play next week. The men are at St. Thomas Aquinas on Nov. 14 while the women take on host Shippensburg on Friday.

A look at the two teams’ season outlooks:

SMC WOMEN

South Burlington native Shannon Kynoch enters her third season at the helm. She led SMC to a 12-15 overall mark and 7-14 league mark a year ago to claim the program’s first postseason berth in three years.

SMC also returns sophomore Tomi Akinpetide, a former Rice Memorial standout, who averaged 5.1 points and 3.7 rebounds a game a year ago. Former U-32 star Mady Bennett, also a sophomore, saw action in 18 games last winter (2.6 ppg) and fellow classmate Leah Spencer put up 6.9 points and 3.7 rebounds a game in just 10 games.

“I’m setting the bar high for them. We’ve been picked last in the poll the last two years and second-to-last this year, and we talk about our identity,” Kynoch said in a news release. “We don’t want to be a surprise anymore; we want to be the team that people are scared to play and regard as a strong team.”

After beating UVM in their annual exhibition game for the first time since 2000 and reaching the Northeast-10 Conference semifinals last year, the Purple Knights (18-11, 12-9) hope to reload following the graduation of one of the program’s best senior classes.

Josh Meyer enters his third year in charge of the Purple Knights, who have back seven players who entered at least a dozen games.

“I don’t think we’re a young or inexperienced team,” Meyer said in a news release. “I think that’s one of the great things about college sports, the cyclical nature of it. We have a great group of student-athletes that are really excited for this year, and new roles and new opportunities for leadership.”

Leading SMC is junior Matt Bonds, a 6-foot-5 forward who averaged 9.7 points and a team-best 9.1 rebounds a game while shooting 50 percent from the floor last winter. Bonds was also the league’s leader in offensive rebounds per game (3.7). Senior Greg Grippo, a co-captain with Bonds, sunk 41 3-pointers and averaged 6.0 points. Senior Morrell Gaskins and junior Zaire Williams, among others, will look to contribute.